Career and Background

Abstract

Niklas Luhmann was born in Germany in 1927. In 1949, he graduated in law and, until 1962, he worked as a jurist in the public administration. In 1962, he published his first theoretical paper, which marked the beginning of his career as a sociologist and was the first of a long series of papers and volumes. In 1968, he took the professorship in sociology at the University of Bielefeld where he taught until 1993, when he retired and was appointed Professor Emeritus. After retiring, Luhmann further expanded his theoretical project and was still influential in the sociological field. After Luhmann’s death in 1998, his work continued to be published and translated. Luhmann was one of the most prolific scholars in the history of Western thought. Many of his books have been translated in several languages, and his popularity has spread from the United States and Brazil to Korea and Japan.